I got over 6 pounds of frozen pork belly at La Morenita. Paid around $20.

I couldn't find curing salt. I checked out Albertson's and Whole Foods, maybe Calandro's too. I ended up going to Cabela's and getting this bacon cure mix which was salt, sugar and sodium nitrate. I don't know how well it worked, because I had the belly in the fridge for 2 weeks and it didn't cure like in the photos I saw of other homemade bacon. The meat looked pink and fresh, it was firm and didn't have that Silly Putty consistency that it was supposed to get.

I smoked the pork belly at around 225 for 2 1/2 or 3 hours. (I polished off a 6 pack of Canebrake while I was doing this, so time gets a little fuzzy)

I ended up slicing the pork belly the next day. Some of it went into a pot of chili and the rest we cooked it for a Spanish Town Mardi Gras party. So it was all gone a day later.

It turned out pretty good, maybe a little too salty. I'll probably do it again, but I'll order curing salt from Amazon.

This post was edited on 2/14/13 at 1:12 pm

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Posted by Rohan2Reed

Member since Nov 2003

75674 posts

Posted on 2/14/13 at 1:15 pm to timbo

quote:
I got over 6 pounds of frozen pork belly at La Morenita. Paid around $20.

Good price right there.

quote:
I ended up going to Cabela's and getting this bacon cure mix which was salt, sugar and sodium nitrate. I don't know how well it worked, because I had the belly in the fridge for 2 weeks and it didn't cure like in the photos I saw of other homemade bacon. The meat looked pink and fresh, it was firm and didn't have that Silly Putty consistency that it was supposed to get.

Yes it's very important to have the right amount of salt (kosher, table salt and pink salt - sodium nitrate) .. and you also need, IMO, brown sugar, chopped garlic and bay leaf. It should take about 7-9 days for the pork belly to cure. You need to monitor it every couple of days and add a little more salt mixture if you see it's not getting firm.

quote:
I smoked the pork belly at around 225 for 2 1/2 or 3 hours. (I polished off a 6 pack of Canebrake while I was doing this, so time gets a little fuzzy)

I ended up slicing the pork belly the next day. Some of it went into a pot of chili and the rest we cooked it for a Spanish Town Mardi Gras party. So it was all gone a day later.

Good stuff